Any Greatest Of All Time list will be divisive. That’s kind of the point, right? No list - no matter how inclusive, will ever match up to your favorites.
So for this list, each of our staffers chose their top five favorite queer films. Then we assigned a point value to each position. After adding up their scores, we came up with the list below. Some will hate it. Some may love the final tally.
I am, by far, the oldest staff member and I came of age when older members of the community shared their love of movies that were old when they came out.
Part of what made these movies so precious to us is that they weren’t readily available.
You must remember this was in the days before home video or streaming services. If an old movie you loved was running on television at midnight, you stayed up to watch it.
You never knew when it might be on again. Of course, certain films were classics, you knew “The Wizard of Oz” would be on sometime around the holidays. The same for “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “It’s A Wonderful Life,” and “Easter Parade.”
There were even movie houses that specialized in screening old movies. They were called repertory houses, and every big city had at least one, and they were usually packed with gay men (or lesbians, if there was a Barbara Stanwyck film). One of the times when I first felt that I belonged in the gay community was a screening of “Mildred Pierce” at the Parkway Theater in Chicago. I walked in and there was a winding staircase up to the balcony and as my eyes swept up the staircase, I saw no less than 12 men dressed as Joan Crawford walking down the staircase. I had never had such a sense of belonging in my life.
But I am off on a tangent.
As I was saying, most of the OutSFL staff is under 40 and probably at least half are less than 25 years old.
Predictably, their choices for their favorite LGBTQ films are skewed toward more recent productions. Even for us old-timers, the history of films with openly LGBTQ characters doesn’t go back that far. In the 1970s, when the old Hays Code forbidding the mention of homosexuality was discarded, LGBTQ characters were still relegated to side roles or villains. It really wasn’t until 1993’s Philadelphia that a big-name star (Tom Hanks) played a sympathetic LGBTQ character in a lead role.
In total, there were 67 movies that received votes – only 18 of which received votes from more than one person.
Here are our staff’s picks for their favorite LGBTQ films. Technically, two of these are cable miniseries, but when the men are that pretty, who’s going to argue?
After each film title, I’ve included a brief description, and I also list the film's rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As with many mainstream agencies, Rotten Tomatoes has had to grow along with the times. Earlier film ratings sometimes suffer lower ratings due to homophobic bias, whether the writer was aware of it or not.
Rotten Tomatoes now employs many out and proud reviewers (our own Gregg Shapiro among them) and straight reviewers, for the most part, have grown in their understanding and acceptance of diversity in the past 25 years, since Rotten Tomatoes was founded.
Here are the films our staff listed as their favorites. Once you get past the top five films, our consensus starts to break down and by the time you get past the top 10, we’ve all gone our separate ways. I’m as guilty as the rest. I certainly agree with the first six films, but after that, it becomes a matter of personal preference. A gory, gothic vampire tale holds no allure for me, but a couple of well-made documentaries, “The Celluloid Closet” and “Paris is Burning” bear repeated watching from me.
But lest you think I’m all highbrow, the cartoon-ish Connie and Carla is played every holiday, right along with Meet Me in St. Louis. It’s just a movie that makes me feel good.
What can I say?
I’m a sap for a simple love story and lots of show tunes.
We’re constantly being bombarded by the latest movies on streaming services and in theaters. Once in a while, it’s good to get reacquainted with an old friend.
10. ‘Bros’ (2022) 89%
Technically, the “first gay rom-com” bombed at the box office. Could it be that though hysterical Billy Eichner was the absolute wrong choice as the leading man. “Bros” is also known for having an entirely queer cast including Luke MacFarlane, TS Madison, and Guillermo Diaz. We think that as time goes by, “Bros” will be seen as the queer classic it deserves to be. The Debra Messing scene alone is worth the price of admission.
9. ‘My Own Private Idaho’ (1991) 80%
Two best friends, living on the streets of Portland as hustlers, embark on a journey of self-discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way. Directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix, “My Own Private Idaho” arrived in a year and time when gay movies and out and proud gay celebrities just didn’t exist.
8. ‘Love, Simon’ (2018) 92%
It shows how far we've come when a teenage boy comes out in a typical rom-com and has the support of his entire community. The glorious and uplifting “Love, Simon” is nothing but joyful to watch. Based on the YA novel “Simon vs. the Homo Sapien Agenda” by Becky Albertalli, the novel ushered in a wave of YA novels centering around queer youth. Jennifer Garner delivers a speech to her son that leaves the audience in tears, wishing we all heard those words from our mom.
7. ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ (1999) 90%
Young, female-to-male transgender, Brandon Teena, leaves his hometown under threat when his ex-girlfriend's brother discovers that he's biologically female. Hilary Swank took home her first Best Actress Oscar for her transformative performance as Teena. The rape scenes are brutal to watch, but directory Kimberly Pierce purposely filmed them to convey the horror Teena went through.
6. ‘Philadelphia’ (1993) 81%
Tom Hanks won his first Best Actor Oscar and is superb as a smart lawyer dying of AIDS who sues his former employers with the help of Denzel Washington, who matches Hanks' work note for note. Hanks today has said multiple times in interviews that if “Philadelphia” were filmed today, the role would rightfully go to a gay actor.
5. ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert’ (1994) 88%
Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and Terence Stamp as drag queens who drive their bus Priscilla across the Australia's Outback in this funny, heartwarming flick from Down Under. It has since been made into a hugely successful Broadway musical.
4. ‘Call Me By Your Name’ (2017) 86%
In one vulnerable and life-altering summer, Elio’s desire finds its purpose. He loves, and in loving, he becomes a sexual creature. The cinematography is stunning in this 2017 adaptation of the 2007 Andre Aciman novel. Starring Timothee Chalamet as the 17-year old Elio and Armie Hammer as the doctoral student interning for his father, this sumptuous film is already a queer classic.
3. ‘Moonlight’ (2016) 98%
A beautifully filmed coming-of-age tale of Chiron, a young black boy in Miami’s Liberty City, “Moonlight” transcends age and race to show us the similarities all queers experience in a heteronormative world. Not to be missed. Unfortunately, “Moonlight” is destined to be remembered for winning the Best Picture Oscar, only to be robbed of that moment when “La La Land” was mistakenly announced as the winner. Seriously, how does that happen?
2. ‘The Birdcage’ (1996) 84%
Hysterically funny, the American remake of the 1978 French farce La Cage aux Folles, stands up surprisingly well through a modern lens. Starring Nathlan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest, Hank Azaria, a pre-’ally mcbeal’ Calista Flockhart and the beloved Robin Williams, be careful to laugh for too long because you might miss the next zinger. Though too many to mention here, Agador Spartacus and “Oh it looks like little boys playing leap frog” are two of the best!
1. ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (2005) 88%
The first gay romance from a major Hollywood studio. Expectations were high, and director Ang Lee did not disappoint. Assembling a who who’s of soon-to-be-A list movie stars including Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Anne Hathaway and perennial Oscar nominee Michelle Williams. “Brokeback Mountain” is remembered in the annals of screen lore for two reasons - the tragic death of star Heath Ledger and being robbed of the Oscar for Best Picture by the formulaic “Crash,’ which many historians count as THE biggest Oscar mistake of all time.
We chose the top ten, now vote for favorite queer movie of all time HERE.
Robert DeDominic contributed to this report.
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